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Administration

2018-19 Proposed Bell Schedule

Our community has spoken, and we are listening. Superintendent Eakins has introduced a proposed bell schedule that is based on several rounds of community input.

At our School Board’s request, our district first asked for community input to create possible options, then launched a Bell Schedule Survey that asked the public to choose one of those six schedule options. Nearly 57,000 people responded to choose one of the six options.

The proposed schedule below is based on the option that was preferred by the most parents, students, and staff who took the Bell Schedule Survey.

This is the general schedule that our district would use for the 2018-2019 school year if the School Board approves this schedule on October 17.

School Type

Start Time

End Time

Early Release Mondays

Elementary School

7:40 am

1:55 pm

12:55 pm

Elementary Magnet School

8:45 am

3:00 pm

2:00 pm

High School

8:30 am

3:25 pm

2:25 pm

Middle and High Magnet School

8:30 am

3:25 pm

2:25 pm

Middle School

9:25 am

4:20 pm

3:20 pm

NOTE: Many district public schools will also have changes to this schedule because of their individual needs. Individual schools' start and end times may change due to this proposed plan based on community input.

In the Bell Schedule Survey, “Option A” was the consensus first choice of nearly all groups of respondents, including parents, students, and staff

Option A was chosen by a wide margin over the other five options

Option A was preferred by 30% of the respondents; the next-most-popular option got 18% of the votes

Our district staff’s reviewed the public’s preferred Option A and looked at how it could be implemented in terms of learning, logistics, and other considerations if the School Board votes to approve it – leading to the proposed bell schedule introduced by Superintendent Eakins

When the previous bell schedule was proposed in spring 2017, our School Board heard clearly from stakeholders that they wanted to have more input in the process

After multiple rounds of input with nearly 57,000 people choosing a potential bell schedule, this was the community’s preferred option

Both the tentative bell schedule discussed in the spring and this proposed bell schedule based on community input would provide enough time for buses to run their routes, solving the problem of thousands of students arriving to school late every day

The district staggers start times to maximize the efficiency of our bus fleet. Under this plan, 80 percent of buses could serve three different schools, up from 60 percent now. Starting everyone at the same time would cost the district $136 million more in annual expenses plus $200 million to purchases additional buses.

By adjusting the bell schedule, our school bus drivers would be able to transport three tiers of students (elementary, middle, and high school). This shift translates to a cost savings of over $2.5 million dollars for our school district.

This is the schedule option that was preferred by the public. As our district’s staff studies how we could implement the public’s top choice, we definitely recognize that the earlier start time for elementary schools compared to the current schedule will cause concern for some parents.

However – 48 of our elementary and K-8 schools are already starting at 7:45 or earlier, right now.

That means about one-third of our schools with elementary-age students already use a schedule like this, because it meets the needs of those schools.

The neighborhoods around those schools, and the schools’ staffs, are also used to that timing.

There are a few more factors to consider:

While the public’s top choice in the Bell Schedule Survey had a 7:30 start time for elementary schools, our district’s staff looked at the logistics involved and were able to propose 7:40 instead. This would allow 50 minutes for buses to run the high school routes that immediately follow elementary school. If elementary schools were to start any later, for example 8:00, there would not be enough time for buses to then run high school routes and get students to high school on time at 8:30.

Because buses will start their days on elementary school routes, they’ll be more consistently on-time at their elementary school bus stops

In general, magnet school buses will pick up students later in the morning than they do now, which is a significant benefit to many of our magnet students, who currently have the earliest bus pickup times in our district

Elementary school campuses would open earlier than they do now, which could help parents who need to get to work

We’ll be offering before-school care at a low cost, which gives parents more flexibility to use other transportation options

Before care and after care is currently offered by Hillsborough Out of School Time (HOST) at many elementary and middle schools. Our goal is to offer this program at all schools where there is a need before the new bell schedule would be implemented. Please visit the HOST (Before and After School Care) to stay informed about options available for families

Our transportation department is currently working on bus routes and schedules. With close to 90,000 students being transported every day, creating a new bus schedule is a massive undertaking. If our School Board approves this plan, parents would be notified over the summer, as in years past, via a postcard mailed to your home address. The postcard would include the new bus schedule and bus route. A Parentlink message will also be sent to families.

Students may lose a few minutes from middle and high school periods, which would be decided at the school level

The proposed schedule still exceeds state’s requirements for time spent in class and still allows our district to offer a seven-period day with more opportunities for advanced courses like AP, dual enrollment, credit recovery, and electives

Thousands more students would now be on time every day under the proposed schedule because buses will have enough time to run their routes, which would be a significant gain in instructional time for them

An additional 20 minutes of planning time would now be available for middle and high school teachers under the proposed schedule at most schools, allowing those teachers more time to develop lessons and review students’ work

Elementary teachers generally would not see a significant change in planning time based on the schedule created with community input

School sites set their own work schedules, so this will vary from school to school

Research from doctors and scientists, as well as community comments at our district’s public meetings and School Board meetings, indicate a preference for a later high school start time, which results in a later end time

Athletic directors, coaches, and activity sponsors would have to collaborate to adjust plans if the School Board approves the proposed schedule, which was the public’s preferred option in the Bell Schedule Survey

The survey was marketed widely across the county using direct messages to parents and staff, TV and newspaper coverage, social media, public meetings, and more, resulting in nearly 76,000 participants, with nearly 57,000 of them indicating a preferred schedule option

This survey’s results were anonymous. Based on research and past experience, if respondents had been forced to verify their identities, it would likely lead to lower participation because of fear that results would not be anonymous. Also, industry standard methods were implemented to detect and remove multiple submissions from one person.

Charter and private schools set their own schedules, and would not necessarily follow this schedule

Many district public schools will also have changes to this schedule because of their individual needs. Individual schools' start and end times may change due to this proposed plan based on community input.

A decision was made not to require respondents to authenticate themselves using an access code or a unique URL because of the district's desire for input from the entire community, and not just those people for whom we might have a valid email address.

Our goal was to solicit as much input as possible, rather than deter participation by requiring respondents to authenticate themselves.

To counter any bias that might result from multiple submissions, two approaches were used.

First, the survey software used for the survey allows us to enable a setting that limits data capture when a person responds multiple times from a single device.

Second, after the survey closed, analysis of the responses received allowed us to identify patterns among IP addresses within the submitted responses. This includes examination of patterns from a single IP address or from a branched IP address during a specified time window.

Scholarly research has also shown that on average about 10% of responses to an unauthenticated internet survey are multiple submissions and that this can be reduced to 3% or less using the methods described.

Inferring from the Data

It may seem troubling that when you add the response choices within and across the models, you can make the claim that the largest number of people preferred high school first or some other building level before another.

The intent of the survey question was for participants to identify the sequence of events within a day that they most preferred. The specific question posed asked the respondent to evaluate which model was preferred. We cannot assume back to the individual building level because this is not what was asked in the question.

Had the question been posed differently, for instance "Which building level do you believe should have the earliest start time?" we could definitely draw conclusions about that preference.

This phenomenon is referred to as a fallacy of ecological inference (inferring micro attributes from macro data).

It is also not statistically appropriate to combine preferences across items where choices include more than 1 item (this is referenced mathematically as Arrow's Theorem), so adding C, D, E, and F together is not valid, because the question is not isolated to the high school start time.

The concrete problem here would be, yes, HS starts first, but once you combine those models, what order do elementary and middle fall into? We can't identify this once the data are collapsed because the models vary on these building’s start times.

This was intentional, because had we asked about a starting time for each building level in isolation, we would likely have ended up with most preferred options that conflicted with other building levels (for example, proposing all schools start at 8:30 a.m.). The decision had to be made for the sequence of events in the day.

Vote Splitting

Vote splitting is a phenomenon that is mathematically impossible to overcome when more than 2 choices are given. This is seen in our own elections as well as survey research. While it may be the case that no single option receives a majority of the votes, outcomes are usually decided by plurality, or the largest share of votes.

When we include more than 2 choices in a survey or voting procedure, we also see a phenomenon called “vote splitting” emerge. This means that it is harder for a clear and strong majority to emerge as the number of choice grows.

There are many similarities between the models included, where the orders are similar and start times were adjusted by just a few minutes, but according to the input we received following the tentative item last year, these minutes have meaning to our stakeholders.

Options Included

Only viable models were included in the survey, which also meant that not every sequence of start times was an option. During our work to develop the survey options, we did explore all viable sequences of events. As it turns out, some sequences are not feasible for the district because of the logistics of providing bus transportation and other factors (i.e., Middle, Elementary, then High or Elementary, Middle, then High).

With these sequences removed, there were fewer ordering options left to include in the survey.

It is also very common in voting systems or preference studies for individuals to feel that their selection was not reflected or represented in the data at the conclusion of the survey. This results in many people who did not vote for the winning selection. As the number of people participating in a survey grows larger, the impact of any one person’s vote becomes proportionately smaller in the overall results. Remember, the intent of survey research is to synthesize or collect individual choices and give an overall tally of these choices to guide decisions.

In the end, the proposed bell schedule was informed by the survey data, focus groups, community meetings, operational constraints, and a need to provide a full day of instruction to every student.

Email - Information on Proposed Bell Time Changes

Dear Parents/Guardians:

A district team is currently gathering information on possible changes to our 2017-2018 bell schedule. The team is seeking input through focus groups and other feedback channels from students, parents, teachers and staff.

Please take a minute to watch this short video that explains in more detail why we are considering bell changes and the possible benefits of those changes for our students and staff.

I encourage you to get involved and address your feedback to bellschedule@sdhc.k12.fl.us within the next week. After that, a summary email including proposed bell schedule times will be sent out and I will bring the final recommendation to the School Board by the end of April.

Thank you for your participation in this very important discussion.

Jeff Eakins
Superintendent
Hillsborough County Public Schools

Bell Schedules 2017 2018 Video

Email - 2017-2018 Bell Time Information

Hello to our teachers, staff and parents of students in Hillsborough County Public Schools,

You may have received an email, short video and parent link explaining our desire to capture your thoughts on the 2017-2018 Bell Schedule, and I want you to know your opinion DOES matter to us. Setting the right conditions for learning to occur takes a lot of moving parts. We are trying to respond to our community who have brought us concerns and have been begging for a resolution. SOME examples of these concerns are late buses and students missing valuable instructional time, teachers not having adequate planning time and high school students pointing out that they are missing work force opportunities because neighboring counties get out of high school at least an hour earlier.

We realize you don’t have the proposed bell times yet but I am happy to report we have focus groups comprised of school and community members who are currently weighing in on these subjects. The work of these focus groups will be completed by tomorrow.

And that is not all we are doing. We have listened to parents from HOST, students at the Middle and High School Student Forums and we want to make sure we have heard from YOU. Please take a moment to tell us your thoughts on current bell schedules and any changes you feel would or would not be beneficial to students by emailing bellschedule@sdhc.k12.fl.us.

It is important to us that we have everyone’s input so that we can continue to refine the proposals currently being presented to the focus groups.

Next Tuesday, April 4, we will send you an email, provide information to school Principals and post information to the district website with a detailed summary of the proposed recommendations. At that time, we will once again, ask for your feedback before we take the proposed recommendations to the School Board for a vote, on April 25.

Thank you so much for all you do to Prepare Students for Life.

Jeff Eakins
Superintendent
Hillsborough County Public Schools

Email - Focus Group Recommendations 2017-2018 Bell Schedule

Parents and Guardians,

I am sending this email, as promised, with information which would allow our community to look at a proposed new bell schedule for the 2017-2018 school year. The reason for this proposal is because we have had years of parent, student and employee concerns around the issues of late buses, loss of instructional time, the need for additional teacher planning time and the need to work within the confines of our budget.

These complaints have been channeled through the schools, parent phone calls, district emails and Middle & High school Student Forums.

We agree that our current bell schedule is unrealistic therefore in order for us to meet the needs of our Elementary, Middle & High school students and properly secure the instructional minutes necessary, something had to change. I want to explain the process I put in place in order to address the issues.

Here's where we started:

Community complaints as stated above.

The consultant hired to work with Hillsborough County Public Schools, informed the district that something must be done differently with bell times to help transportation work more effectively and efficiently as stated in the Gibson Report. * Supporting documentation on the district website.

September 2016, we created a Bell-Time Focus Group comprised of members of transportation, Human Resources, Teaching and Learning and site based school principals. This group discussed state law and non-negotiables around bell times.

We created additional Bell-Time Focus Groups from 22 different schools. At each of the 22 school sites, there were three stakeholder groups. These groups were comprised of parents, staff and students. These focus groups discussed parent needs, modes of available transportation, community impact and competitive workforce challenges. * Supporting documentation on the district website.

As per number 3 and 4 above, Students, parents and teachers at 22 schools throughout the district discussed and gave feedback in bell schedule focus groups. Approximately 65 people met per school, giving a total of 1310 surveyed. * Supporting documentation on the district website.

We also requested feedback from the community through a YouTube video, Parent Link phone call, and parent link email. We received over 2300 responses so far.

We have created a brand new website dedicated specifically to Bell Schedule information so that everyone can go there for the most updated information.

We are sending today's email along with a link to a detailed YouTube video. The video illustrates some of the challenges we face and some of the considerations and truths we could not ignore. (Credit Recovery, Electives, Childcare etc.) The YouTube video includes an explanation of how we came to the proposed new Bell Schedule. * Supporting documentation on the district website.

The new proposed bell times are attached to this email. The proposed times have many benefits to our students and staff.

Our high school students will be dismissed nearly an hour earlier, allowing opportunities for jobs and getting to practice and after-school activities sooner which means they can get home earlier.

Our elementary students will gain an extra 15 minutes of Art, Music and PE, which improves the overall health and well-being of students.

Our middle school students, along with our high school students, keep a 7 period day which affords them the opportunity to take more classes (including Advanced Placement and electives such as Art, Music and Band) to reach their graduation requirements.

Since our high school students will be dismissed before elementary and middle, older siblings can now assist with their younger siblings.

Students will benefit from increased teacher planning time which will allow for more collaboration among teachers.

Adjusting the bell schedule will allow a greater percentage of school bus drivers to transport three tiers of students (Elementary, Middle and High School). This shift translates to a cost savings of over two and a half million dollars for our school district.

We have attached a complete list of the proposed bell schedule for all schools. An effort was made to minimize the impact on K-8 and Magnet students, due to Choice. Through the various Middle and High school models, class periods are proposed to be shortened anywhere from 2-4 minutes per class. The fluctuation of class time missed, is due to variables such as whether a school has an International Baccalaureate or other specialized programs on site. Lunch periods and current passing times are also factors.

After you have watched the video and studied the attached proposed bell times, we look forward to your feedback once again. Please send your response to BellSchedule@sdhc.k12.fl.us. After we review feedback from our families, we will create the final recommendation and bring it to our School Board for a vote on April 25 at 3:30 p.m.

I am excited to move forward and make the necessary changes you have so patiently waited for. I know that these changes will help us work towards our goal of a 90% graduation rate by the year 2020. Thank you for allowing us to serve you and your children as together, we Prepare Students for Life.

Email - Proposed new bell schedule update

April 17, 2017

Dear parents, staff, and community members,

I am grateful for your feedback on the proposed new bell schedule. More than 3,000 of you have watched the YouTube video. More than 4,000 of you responded to our request for email feedback and close to 1,300 of you attended focus groups held at local schools. Many of you have visited our school district website to see the recommended schedule, read related articles and look over FAQs.

I am writing this letter to thank you for your input and to tell you that it has impacted our decision.

To provide you some additional background, we consistently receive an average of 4,000 calls per week on bus related matters and many questions and complaints revolve around bus delays. Last August district leaders began planning sessions to discuss how to improve bus route efficiency.

It is widely known that our current arrival and dismissal schedule is not achievable. The reason for this is because in the morning, as soon as buses drop off high school students, the drivers struggle to turn around and get through traffic, in order to pick up elementary students and get them to school on time. The schedule requires bus drivers to accomplish this, all within 27-minutes.

The same complications arise in the afternoon.

For these same tasks, our surrounding school districts have built in 60-90 minutes. A 27-minute timeframe is clearly unrealistic and has resulted in our students arriving late to school, causing them to lose valuable instructional time. In addition, it has caused frustration for both parents and school staff in the afternoons because students are unable to get home on time as a result of chronically late buses. This 27-minute turnaround time is simply not enough time for the bus runs necessary to transport our students.

In addition to getting students to class on time, the improved efficiency will redirect $2.5 million from transportation back into the classroom to support instruction for students.

We need to act in order to improve the schedule so that our students are in class, on time. We feel the proposed schedule is in fact, the best for our community. We care about how our parents feel and much of the feedback we have heard centered around the fact that families do not have enough time to plan for these changes.

To make the transition easier, I am going to recommend we wait a year before making any change to the bell schedule. This additional time will allow the school district and families to make any necessary adjustments and clarify questions or concerns that exist.

I hope you will continue to express your needs so we can accommodate wherever possible. At the School Board meeting on April 25, 2017, I will propose that we maintain our current bell schedule for the 2017-2018 school year and recommend a tentative bell schedule for the 2018-2019 school year that incorporates the necessary changes. These 2018-2019 recommended bell times will be posted online tomorrow at the following web address: http://www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/doc/1855/administration/resources/belltimes/.

We appreciate your patience as we try to improve in order to create the best conditions for learning.

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As required by Section 668.6076, Florida Statutes, you are hereby notified that: Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing. History.--s. 1, ch. 2006-232.